Italian, The

Aroview: Despite the title there is little Tuscan sunshine to be found here, but instead a frosty though warm-hearted tale from a Russian orphanage, anchored by an adorable, feisty child performance.

Dubbed 'The Italian' by his fellow orphans because of his impending adoption by wealthy Italians, crafty six-year-old Vanya instead decides to break out and embark on a search for the mother who abandoned him. A sobering window into a post-Glasnost Russia that is compromised by idealogical confusion as much as its climate, it is a place where naivety and blind hope just might be worth the investment.

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